‘The 2 Ricks: Unfiltered’: Starting a podcast with Rick Telander

One of the greatest moments of my life occurred several years ago after a telephone conversation with Rick Telander. My fellow Sun-Times sports columnist had just told me he needed to cut short our chat because he was about to be a guest on a local radio station.

I turned on the program.

‘‘And now,’’ the host said, ‘‘CNBC business reporter Rick Santelli joins us to talk about the downturn in the markets. Rick, are we at an ominous turning point with the economy?’’

Clearly, someone had messed up. Either the host thought he was getting a business reporter when the guest actually was a sportswriter, or the show’s producer had meant to call the business reporter and accidentally called the sportswriter.

There were two ways for Telander to handle this painfully awkward situation. The right way, though embarrassing, was to say on the air that there must have been some sort of mistake, that he was Rick Telander, the sports columnist, and that if you wanted to know about the business of the Cubs’ rotation, he was there for the station.

Telander chose Way No. 2.

‘‘We’ve gone over the financial cliff,’’ our man said without missing a beat.

And for the next five glorious minutes, Rick Telander was Rick Santelli. Tumbling stocks? Rising interest rates? Apple’s rollout of its latest product? Telander confidently opined on every business topic thrown his way. Few listeners could have known that there had been a mix-up. It’s still a blur of laughter and tears for me.

There are two morals to this story. The first is that Rick is light on his feet, and the second is that he can talk about anything with authority. Both of those attributes are perfect for ‘‘The Two Ricks: Unfiltered,’’ the podcast the two of us have started. Very few topics and opinions will be out of bounds. And what we don’t know, Telander will make up.

We’re pals. We weren’t thrust together in the latest shakeup at a radio station. We were friends before marriage, always a good thing. We’ve talked several times a week for years about sports, politics, writing, my years as a golf caddie and his ability to put away a prodigious number of hot dogs at one sitting.

If the idea of listening to two veteran columnists gab about everything and anything sports-related appeals to you, come spend some time with us. We won’t be talking about which player’s batting average on balls in play is better. That’s for someone else to do. The first ‘‘2 Ricks’’ episode has Telander recalling the time, as an adult columnist, he played a match against a 3-year-old golf phenom. There’ll be a lot of that and possibly some digressions.

Both of us have been sportswriters for a long time. We have stories. We have insights. We’ve been to Olympics, Super Bowls, British Opens, heavyweight title bouts and the occasional World Series-clinching victory. We can take you places you might not have been before. Smelly locker rooms, for instance.

There will be challenges. Two times in a row, Telander thought a podcast taping was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. when it was clearly pointed out in several emails from the producer that we were starting a half-hour earlier. What he has secretly wanted all these years is a personal assistant. He yearns to be free of schedules, paperwork and detail. This side of him eventually will come out in the podcast, as will his aversion to artificial intelligence. I refuse to be the assistant who tells him what time to arrive for the show or the caddie who tells him what club to hit (1 p.m. and 7-iron, respectively).

The promotional material for the podcast describes us as ‘‘legendary sportswriters.’’ We didn’t write that. We know that legendary means one of two things: really, really good or really, really dead. We’d prefer ‘‘handsome’’ or, short of that, ‘‘breathing.’’

About a half-hour after the radio interview with ‘‘Rick Santelli,’’ one of the show’s hosts admitted on the air that a producer had hit the wrong name in her directory and dialed Telander, a sports columnist, not a business reporter.

No worries. I’m told that ratings soared and the stock market rebounded.

Follow me on Twitter @MorrisseyCST.

Email: rmorrissey@suntimes.com

Legendary Sun-Times sports columnists Rick Morrissey and Rick Telander are co-hosts of a new podcast called “The Two Ricks: Unfiltered.” Don’t miss their gritty, no-holds-barred take on everything from professional teams tanking to overzealous sports parents and more. And it’s free. Subscribe to “The Two Ricks: Unfiltered” on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, or via RSS.